THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT JAPAN

I have regularly reported on King Kamehameha Day, and here is one from five years ago. Today is a state holiday, but the annual Saturday floral parade has been cancelled, and there is discouragement about being at the statue when leis are draped over King Kamehameha on Friday. Best I can find is that the local Olelo channel 53 will be showing this event from 12:30-1:30 today.

How many people have died from COVID-19?

Between seven million and 13 million people have died of Covid, according to an analysis by The Economist magazine. The pace has been speeding up, too: More people have already died in 2021 than did in all of 2020.

The Worldometer site I have been using indicates today that 3.8 million have perished. The Johns Hopkins data used by many also says 3.8 million deaths. Where are most of the still unreported deaths? Africa (second from the right) and especially Asia (right-most graph), which includes the who region centered in India:

Read the Economist article.

Vaccination rates are lagging in Africa, Asia and Oceania.

One of the problems cropping up is that the Chinese Sinovac vaccine appears to be far less than effective than the American versions, which are in the mid-90 percentage. Even the Russian Sputnik is at 90%. About Sinovac:

The Sinovac study was to look at how the vaccine works against the entire range of clinical symptoms, from mild infections to severe ones, including death. The efficacy data of about 50% is for very mild disease, requiring no treatment. For infections requiring some medical intervention, it’s about 84% and for moderate-to-severe Covid cases, it’s 100%.

However, even the Chinese vaccine is 100% effective against deaths, so their vaccine cannot be blamed for the unaccounted for deaths in certain regions of the world.

My roots are in Japan, so I have a special fondness for that country. I've landed there more a hundred times and have annually used Japan Rail Pass, usually during Cherry Blossom and Fall Color periods, to see just about everything I would want. Here is what I have learned through the years:

Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world at 85.03, 88.09 for women and 81.91 for men.

Hong Kong, which is part of China is a bit higher at 85.29.
Macao, China, is 84.68.
Next, Switzerland 84.25.
Then, Singapore 84.25.
Way down at #46 is the USA at 79.11.
Hawaii is the state with the highest life expectancy.
At one time, a Japanese male in Hawaii lived longer than a Japanese male in Japan. Not sure if this is true today.
Half a dozen African countries are the lowest at 54-55.

Japan is #185 in birthrate at 1.36.

Even lower is #200 South Korea with 0.918 and #196 Singapore at 1.140
#149 China 1.696
#145 USA 1.705
#1 Niger 6.8

Tokyo has the largest metropolis population at 37.4 million.

#2 is Delhi with 28.5 million
#3 is Shanghai at 25.6 million.
#11 is New York City at 18.8 million.

Japan is #1 in patents applied and granted.
University of Tokyo is the #1 university in Asia, with 17 prime ministers as graduates.

Of course, UofT is anywhere from #20-#50 depending, on who did the study.
In another ranking:

#21 Peking University (China)
#22 KAIST (South Korea)
#27 Tsinghua University (China)
#34 Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
#41 Tokyo University

The USA dominates with the best universities in every survey.

Difficult to explain, but read this article. Those are U.S. cities stuck into the Tokyo metropolis, which is the world's wealthiest, with a Gross Domestic Product of $1.52 trillion, beating New York City, at a mere $0.31 trillion. The poorest is said to be Kinsasha, Congo, with a GDP of $55 billion where many residents live on less than $1/day. The most expensive city to live in is Singapore. A Toyota Prius sells for $150,000. A loaf of bread there costs $3.36, but only goes for $0.91 in Mumbai, India.

Japan is #185 in the world obesity ranking. Best is Vietnam at #191:

The top ten are all islands of the Pacific,with Nauru at #1.
The USA is #12, The average person in the USA consumes 3770 calories/day.

Japan is #71 in alcohol consumption.

#1 Moldova 15.2 liters/capita/year
#5 Germany 13.4
#11 Russia 11.7
#38 South Korea 10.2
#45 U.S. 9.8
#71 Japan 8
#82 China 7.2
#147 Singapore 2
#189 Somalia 0

It all starts with the children:

Finally, how Japan is better:

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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